Over the last two weeks, the international ICT world was dominated by Vodafone's $1.7 billion takeover of C&W Worldwide. But there were also many smaller deals, including two by both IBM and Microchip Technology, and others from Cisco, EMC, Intel and Open Text.

At home, it has been a quiet time because of the holidays, with the disposal by SecureData of its UK operations being one of the main stories.

* Good year-end figures from Econet Wireless, with revenue up 24% and profit up 18%. * A quarterly loss from Mobinil (Egypt), although revenue was up 3.9%. * A report by HIS iSuppli Broadband & Digitally Connected Home Market Tracker said the developing regions of the world will be the biggest source for new broadband activity in 2012, with 17% growth, compared to a less than 7% growth in the developed markets of Europe and North America. * Glo Mobile (Nigeria) has commenced commercial services in that country. * HP has opened an office in Ethiopia.

* International: * The acquisition by Google of Twitter, with Microsoft, News Corporation and Yahoo also being other possible contenders. * Facebook's IPO on 18 May, which could raise as much as $10 billion and value the company at close to $100 billion. * Micron Technology being the 'winner' in the bid for Elpida Memory. * South Africa: * Further developments regarding the Reunert/Holdsworth 'spat'.

* The EMEA e-book market more than doubled in 2011, with Amazon the market leader, followed by Sony, according to IDC. * The global notebook market will reach 55 million units in Q2 2012, a 9.5% growth from Q1 2011, according to Digitimes Research. * Customer experience has entered the top 10 CIO technology priorities for this year, reports Gartner. * The unified threat management market surpassed the $1 billion mark in 2011, according to Gartner. * Africa leads the world when it comes to embracing new technology, with a growth of 41% in 2011 compared to China's 34% and the US's 12%, according to Intel. * Smartphone shipments will reach 1.7 billion in 2017, with the market share of the Android OS reaching 48%, followed by Apple's iOS with 27%, predicts Ovum.

Jon Fell, a partner and telecoms expert at the UK-based law firm, Pinsent Masons, recently suggested in an opinion piece, in the latest edition of European Communications, that the telecommunications industry is going through its biggest era of change since the introduction of mobile telephony. Put simply, telecoms companies must adapt or die in the new 'always on', data-driven world.

He believes the days of trying to be everything to everyone have passed. Whether mobile or fixed-line, telcos need to concentrate on what they're good at, offering a complete set of services to others and maximising revenue from their existing infrastructure. In his mind, these changes will take place in the context of five key trends, which will dominate the telecoms industry over the next 12 months. Although the article is Europe-oriented, the trends are just as pertinent to our own situation in SA. They are: coping with the data explosion, spectrum use, mobile payments, use of smart devices for work, and regulatory changes.